FAIR (“FAIRNESS AND ACCURACY IN REPORTING”) CRITIQUES THE NEWSHOUR WITH JIM LEHRER 5/23/05 - There was no golden era of PBS. The crown jewel of the network’s news programming -- with the most viewership and influence -- has long been the nightly NewsHour With Jim Lehrer. As with many other subjects, the program’s coverage of war has relied heavily on official U.S. sources and perspectives in sync with them. The media watch group FAIR (where I’m an associate) has documented that during one war after another -- such as the Gulf War in 1991, the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 and the invasion of Iraq two years ago -- the NewsHour’s failure to provide independent coverage has been empirical and deplorable. Such failures are routine and longstanding for the show, as FAIR’s research makes clear. --Norman Solomon, at the National Conference for Media Reform, held May 13-15 in St. Louis. 8/19/04 – [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld was back in media action for a long interview Aug. 17 on the PBS NewsHour with host Jim Lehrer. Mostly, Rumsfeld spun the fine fabric of public relations. Along the way, he talked about how to get "the best intelligence" and "good all-source analysis" without "having it all single-perspective." Minutes later, Lehrer got around to asking whether Pentagon analysts doing "lessons-learned studies" on Iraq had determined "why the intelligence turned out to be so wrong about weapons of mass destruction." Rumsfeld: "Ooh, no, that wasn’t what we did, no. The CIA did that." Lehrer: "Right. So you didn’t — that was not part of your lessons learned?" Rumsfeld: "No. We’re not in that business." The evasive reply came from the Pentagon honcho who’d flatly declared before the Iraq invasion that the U.S. government knew where Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were located. But — without a word of followup — Lehrer changed the subject, moving on to a matter of tactical foresight. "What about the intensity of the insurgency after major combat," he asked, "was that an intelligence failure within the Pentagon — or not?" Rumsfeld’s response was predictable and easy ("things are always different than one anticipates ... a war plan doesn’t ever outlive the first contact with the enemy..."). In an interview that involved several thousand words and focused largely on intelligence, Lehrer permanently dropped the WMD question as soon as Rumsfeld blew it off. --Norman Solomon 4/16/04 - On the April 7 edition of the PBS NewsHour, anchor Jim Lehrer offered a rationale for the U.S. closure of the Al Hawza newspaper, affiliated with Shiite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr. But so far the program has been unable to supply evidence to back up Lehrer's charge, and is refusing to correct the host's error. Lehrer explained on the program, "The reason we shut down his press is because it was calling for violence." One of Lehrer's guests interrupted to agree with him, but Lehrer finished by saying, "I just want to get that on the record." Syndicated columnist (and FAIR associate) Norman Solomon was puzzled by Lehrer's attempt to set the record straight, since what he said actually contradicts the evidence that is on the record. Solomon called the NewsHour and asked what Lehrer was relying on to support his claim. A NewsHour spokesperson offered newspaper articles from the NYT (4/6/04) and the Chicago Tribune (4/5/04). But those articles don't support Lehrer at all; they report U.S. charges that the paper was printing inaccurate information that could incite violence, but do not mention any calls for violence by the paper. In fact, another New York Times article (4/5/04) actually pointed out that "the paper did not print any calls for attacks." Solomon continued to press the NewsHour, asking if they would issue a correction for what is clearly a mistake by their anchor. But the program rejected that idea; in an email to Solomon, a spokesperson wrote, "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer stands behind the 'Iraq: What Now?' discussion segment from April 7 and will not be making a correction." Correcting a false statement by an anchor would seem to be an easy call. But FAIR activists might remember that the NewsHour seems to have peculiar standards when it comes to such matters: Last month, Lehrer actually read an apologetic "editor's note" two days after a segment (3/2/04) where one guest criticized the reconstruction contracts granted to companies like Halliburton and Bechtel. Lehrer faulted the segment (3/4/04) for "not being as balanced as is our standard practice." Viewers might be left wondering what the show's "standard practice" is for correcting errors made by the host. --FAIR [The U.S. closure of the Al Hawza newspaper led directly to the death of Casey Sheehan. His mother, Cindy Sheehan is demanding that the US leave Iraq. Casey was killed on April 4, 2004 in Sadr City, the poor Shi'ite section of Baghdad, by supporters of Moqtada Al-Sadr. US occupation administrator Paul Bremer closed the Al Hawza newspaper – apparently because it insulted Bremer – and, according to reporter Aaron Glantz, “demanded Sadr's arrest for opposing the occupation ... Until April 4, 2004 Muqtada Sadr had urged his followers to protest peacefully against American occupation. But the American assault lead him to urge his followers to 'terrorize the enemy.' In the first 48 hours of fighting Sadr's followers seized police stations and government buildings across the country including the Governor's Office in Basra. At least 75 Iraqis and 10 American servicemen were killed, among them Army Specialist Casey Sheehan.”] 8/16/01 - Ignore the commercials on noncommercial broadcasts. Remember that they're not really commercials, just "enhanced underwriter credits." It might bother you that every broadcast of the "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer" starts with a lush spot for the global agribusiness titan Archer Daniels Midland, but push any concern out of your mind. Assume it's only a coincidence that you don't see the most influential news program on television doing any sustained investigative reporting about manipulation of the world's food supply by huge corporations. --Norman Solomon This flyer was assembled by members of AWARE, the Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort, but it does not necessarily represent the views of AWARE as an organization or of any particular member of it. AWARE is an open organization and meets every Sunday evening 5-7PM at the Independent Media Center, the old post office building at 202 South Broadway in Urbana (use the Elm Street entrance). For information about the war beyond that available on PBS, see (among many others) , , , , , , , , , , , , , and ###